Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

Buckingham was the second child and only son of Richard, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, and his wife Lady Mary, younger daughter of John Campbell, 4th Earl of Breadalbane and Holland (later the 1st Marquess of Breadalbane). His sister, Lady Anna Eliza Mary Gore-Langton, was a women's rights campaigner. As his father's son and heir apparent, he was styled Earl Temple from birth. He was 15 years of age when his paternal grandfather died and his father became the 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. From this time, he was styled Marquess of Chandos until he succeeded his father as Duke.

Upon his father's death in 1861, his titles were Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Marquess of Chandos, and Earl Temple of Stowe in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; Marquess of Buckingham, Earl Temple, Viscount and Baron Cobham in the Peerage of Great Britain; and Earl Nugent in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1868, he was also recognised by the House of Lords as Lord Kinloss in the Peerage of Scotland. He inherited 10,500 acres, mostly in Buckingham.

The young Lord Temple, later Lord Chandos, attended Eton until 1841 and graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, from which he later received an honorary degree of D.C.L. Two years after graduation, Lord Chandos (as he then was) was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry and he would eventually become Honorary Colonel of that regiment. He was also Hon. Colonel of the 1st Administrative Battalion, Middlesex Artillery Volunteers and later of the City of London Artillery.

Early career

In 1846, Buckingham, as the Marquess of Chandos, entered Parliament as Conservative MP for Buckinghamshire, and remained as an unopposed MP until 1857. The young Lord Chandos was appointed a deputy lieutenant for Oxfordshire on 3 February 1846, Hampshire on 17 February, and Northamptonshire on 29 May.

In 1852, he entered Lord Derby's administration as a Lord of the Treasury, a position he held for exactly ten months. That year, he was also appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of the Prince of Wales, Deputy Warden of the Stannaries, deputy lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, and chairman of the London and North-Western Railway. In 1857, he resigned as MP for Buckinghamshire and did not stand for re-election. In 1861, he succeeded his father as Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (and in various other titles across four Peerages) and took his seat in the House of Lords. In the 1860s he was chairman of the London Pneumatic Despatch Company.

Buckingham's political career was stagnant until 1866, when he was appointed to the Privy Council and became Lord Derby's Lord President of the Council. He served as Lord President of the Council until 8 March 1867, when he succeeded Lord Carnarvon as Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Buckingham married firstly Caroline Harvey, daughter of Robert Harvey of Langley Park, Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and sister of Sir Robert Harvey, 1st Baronet of Langley Park, in 1851. They had three daughters:

Mary Morgan-Grenville, 11th Lady Kinloss (1852–1944)

Lady Anne (1853–1890)

Lady Caroline Jemima Elizabeth (1858–1946)

Caroline, Duchess of Buckingham and Chandos, died in February 1874.

Buckingham married, secondly, Alice Graham-Montgomery, daughter of Sir Graham Graham-Montgomery, 3rd Baronet, in 1885. Born in 1848, she was 25 years younger than he. In 1897, she was one of the guests at the Duchess of Devonshire's Diamond Jubilee Costume Ball. There were no children from this marriage. Widowed in 1889, Alice, Dowager Duchess of Buckingham and Chandos, married the 1st Earl Egerton in 1894. She died in 1931, aged 83.